Edit This Favorite

Name:

Category:

Share:

YesNo, Keep Private

NFN Executive Director Visits ONA

The National Federation of Nurses (NFN) Executive Director Kathi Koehn, RN, spent two busy days in Oregon on August 9-10, 2011 during her orientation visit to ONA. Kathi was appointed as the new Executive Director of NFN in May 2011. Prior to joining NFN, she was President of Minnesota Nurses Association, where she gained a lot of her labor expertise. Kathi brings more than 35 years of experience as a staff nurse and nursing leader to NFN and its member states.

On August 9 Kathi was welcomed by ONA Executive Director, Susan King, and ONA Assistant Executive Director of Labor Relations, Paul Goldberg, as she toured the ONA office and was introduced to staff. Kathi met with ONA directors where she was given an overview of each department area. Throughout her two-day visit, she also met with ONA President Steve Rooney, E&GW Cabinet Chair Julie Shuff, and members of the ONA Executive Team. Kathi later had the opportunity to meet two of Oregon’s labor leaders, Tom Chamberlain, President of Oregon AFL-CIO, and Elex Tenney, Acting President of the OFNHP. Kathi expressed how impressed she was with ONA’s respect and interaction with other labor leaders.

Another highlight of her visit was her walk-through of OHSU where she met the Chief Nurse Executive at OHSU, Jennifer Jacoby, RN, discussed the Releasing Time to Care program and was introduced to the new Safe Lift Program. (image to left: Kathi Koehn, far right, at OHSU with, from left to right, Harold Fleshman, Steve Rooney, Katy Cooper and Paul Goldberg)

Kathi summed up her visit to ONA as one of the highlights of her career, expressing how amazed and impressed she was with ONA staff, structure, and the work being done in the professional service, government and labor relations areas on behalf of its members.